


Unconventional

by starkaryen



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 23:39:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5804794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkaryen/pseuds/starkaryen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal is Will's student in his class.</p><p>--</p><p>Where everything's exactly the same, except how they meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea was born in [this post](http://starkaryen.tumblr.com/post/137578366588/anorexorcist13-starkaryen-anorexorcist13).

“Did you wish to speak to me?” Hannibal asked, standing right in front of Will’s desk with a perfectly polite smile and a spotless three-piece suit, as usual.

He had almost forgotten, but of course, Will had told him to stay after class when he had handed over the papers he had asked his students to write. Hannibal Lecter had written a perfect essay, and Will was somehow annoyed. The mere presence of the Doctor in his class threw him off from the first day, since he didn’t understand it. He had tried to ignore that and teach his classes as he usually did, but he just couldn’t avoid it anymore.

“Yes, I wanted to speak to you, Dr. Lecter,” he said, circling the desk and leaning against it, both hands flat on top of it.

“Was there something wrong with my paper?” Hannibal asked, tilting his head.

Will snorted, but couldn’t help to smile too, half bothered and half amused.

“You know there wasn’t, you saw the grade. But that’s exactly it. I’ll be honest, and I hope you don’t take it wrong way, but… What are you doing here? In my class?”

“I don’t know what other way I could take a question like that,” Hannibal said, but he didn’t seem the least upset about it.

“Well, sorry, but… I just don’t get it. I mean, you have a PhD, a very successful career, you publish articles in most psychiatric publications…” 

“Does that make me ineligible for your class, professor?” Hannibal asked, merely adjusting the tablet in his hands.

“No… But see? That right there. You’re older than me,” Will said, as if that was an explanation.

“Ouch,” he said, pretending to be hurt because of his remark, but he actually broadened his smiled.

“That’s not- I meant… I don’t mean it in that way, I just-” Will mumbled, but stopped talking, embarrassed about his blunder.

“That’s completely fine. Would things be less awkward for you if I called you Will?” Hannibal asked, and Will raised his eyes, making eye contact with him for the first time.

“That wouldn’t be exactly conventional, don’t you think?” Will asked, but his lips curved a little upwards.

“No, it would not. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing… don’t you think?”

Will didn’t answer, so Hannibal smiled again and took a step towards him.

“Since we’re about to make things a little unconventional, we may as well do this properly. Are you hungry, Will?”

Will laughed then, looking down and shaking his head.

“No offense, Dr. Lecter-“

“Hannibal.”

“Okay… No offense, Hannibal, but I usually don’t have lunch with my students. And besides, I don’t find you that interesting…”

“You will,” he said with confidence, not losing his smile at any moment.

That really baffled him, and he furrowed his brow. Will cleared his throat and opened his mouth, ready to reject his invitation as politely as he could, but then he closed it, tapped his fingers twice on the desk and stepped away from it, turning a little and looking at Hannibal sideways.

“This is… just lunch. I don’t want you to think for a second that I will show any kind of favoritism toward any student, no matter their reputation or career.”

“And I wouldn’t expect you so.”

Will nodded and, after looking at him one last time as if to make sure that everything was clear, he turned to take his jacket and briefcase, and then walked toward the door with Hannibal beside him.


	2. Chapter 2

“What if it wasn’t regret at all?

Will stopped pacing in front of the desk and turned to the student’s seats. He knew who had spoken, and he knew where he was seated, so it only took him a second to locate him. It took him longer than a second to react, because he wasn’t used to having people speaking up in his classes.

“Eh… Care to elaborate?”

“The only thing all the victims had in common was the illness they suffered. Different hospitals, different cities, different everything. What if he just wanted to liberate them, because he knew what they were going through?”

“You mean that he also had cancer.”

“It could be a possibility,” Hannibal said, and then he pointed at the image in the projector. “The victims were found peacefully placed in their homes. It could be regret, but it could also be an empathy act.”

Will looked at the picture in the screen and closed his eyes for a second. The carefulness in which he had treated them, the way in which he had placed the bodies, seated in their couches or lying down in their beds, as if they had had a sudden but somewhat peaceful death… It had taken the police a few victims to know they were actually dealing with a series of connected murders, with a serial killer.

“Everyone thought he had left the victims like that because he felt regret…” Will said out loud, and his voice echoed in the living room of one of the victims, where he was standing. “Maybe he felt absolutely no remorse about what he had done, maybe he just wanted to give them a dignified death…”

Will opened his eyes and turned around again, and then he noticed for the first time that the rest of the students were looking wide-eyed from Will to Hannibal, who had a small smile in his lips, and then back at Will. He cleared his throat, his mind still slowly slipping back to reality.

“It is an interesting theory,” he said, but it was more than that. It made sense, and if that was the case, the FBI would be able reactivate the search that had been blocked for a long time.

Will looked at his watch then and saw that he had exceeded his hour for five minutes, so he dismissed the class and ran a hand through his face while the students went out of the room. He was already thinking about taking that theory to the pertinent FBI department. It might be nothing, but it also could be something, so it was worth a try.

“I assume usually your students don’t talk in your classes?”

Will smiled, but didn’t turn around right away to face the owner of the voice.

“What gave it away?” he asked, while he gathered everything on the desk.

“The shock in your face when I spoke would’ve been sufficient, but it also seemed like myclassmates were somehow even more stunned than you.”

Will turned around and pointed the remote at the projector, turning it off. When he finally looked at Hannibal, Will hadn’t lost his smile.

“I think they were expecting an admonition from me, not an open discussion.”

“I apologize if I’ve compromised your classroom rules, then,” Hannibal said, but Will knew right away he wasn’t sorry at all, so he shook his head, amused.

“Unbelievable. And here I thought you would be the less problematic student.”

Hannibal gave him a smile, matching Will’s.

“Maybe it was all my fault. After all, I was the one who decided to make this relationship way less conventional than it would’ve naturally been by inviting you to lunch.”

“But you’re not sorry,” Will asserted.

“I can’t say that I am, no.”

Will nodded, and then he shrugged.

“You know, it would be a lot less conventional if it had been dinner instead of lunch,” Will said, and he felt a little light-headed at his audacity. But he had already said it, and he discovered that he actually didn’t want to take it back.

“Is that an invitation, Will?”

Will smiled again, and then he turned around and finished gathering his things, exactly as he had done in the previous class, with Hannibal exactly in the same position, right in front of him.

“Maybe.”

Hannibal grinned, showing his teeth, and extended a hand towards the exit door, allowing Will to walk in front of him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posts in tumblr [here](http://starkaryen.tumblr.com/post/137578284783/teacherwill-studenthannibal) and [here](http://starkaryen.tumblr.com/post/137631663388/never-stop-all-your-fics-are-golden-but).
> 
> \--
> 
> I don't think I'll be writing anything else for this prompt, but who knows, I wasn't even planning on writing this!
> 
> Thanks to the lovely anon who sent me that message♥️


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